This past week Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer signed a new racist-as-hell bill aimed at ending ethnic studies classes in Tucson public schools. These elective classes in Mexican-American history and literature, plus African-American literature, are open to all students, although not surprisingly, most of those who take them belong to the ethnic group being studied. The signing of the bill was a particular victory for Tom Horne, Arizona’s superintendent for public instruction (and Boss Hogg look-alike), who has led the campaign against their “destructive ethnic chauvinism.”

Tom’s delusional argument boils down to this: We shouldn’t teach students “the downer” that they are oppressed. Why is it that this argument is always used by white men? Tom goes on to quote testimony from one student who declared, “Before I took this [ethnic studies] course, I didn’t realize I was oppressed. Now I realize I’m oppressed.” And this would be called self-actualization? Empowerment? Not in Tom Horne’s Arizona! It’s a downer.

Yeah, too much knowledge makes you sad, particularly the knowledge that you’re the victim of discrimination and oppression. What I find particularly impressive is the bullshit way Tom Horne frames the bill as a service to Latinos. Ignorance is bliss! Tom doesn’t want people to know they’re oppressed—because he doesn’t want them to feel bad about it! What a racist paternalist pinche cabrón thoughtful gentleman!

Judy Burns, president of the governing board of the Tucson schools, said the district’s ethnic studies courses did not violate any of the provisions of the new law and would be continued because they were valuable to the students.

“From everything I’ve seen, they empower kids to take charge of their own destiny, gain a sense of the value of their own existence and become more determined to be well-educated contributing members of society,” Ms. Burns said.

But Tom Horne wouldn’t know that:

Mr. Arce and Ms. Burns said that they had repeatedly invited Mr. Horne to visit the ethnic studies classes, but that he had declined the invitations.

“We wish he’d come see it, so he’d know what we do, and not just go on hearsay,” Ms. Burns said.

Mr. Horne acknowledged that he had never sat in on a class, but said he did not believe that what he would see would be representative of what regularly took place.

Even though he has never so much as set foot in a classroom to observe an ethnic studies class, Tom Horne takes the classic approach: he’s the Pendejo White Man in Charge, and his prejudices are therefore obviously right. All the other people—even those with the first-hand knowledge he lacks—must be wrong.

What “regularly took place” in these classroom?

Sean Arce, director of Tucson’s Mexican-American studies department, said the ethnic studies courses do teach students about the marginalization of different groups in the United States through history.

“They don’t teach resentment or hostility, in any way, shape or form,” Mr. Arce said. “Instead, they build cultural bridges of understanding, and teach the skills students need to understand history.”

Furthermore, Mr. Arce said, the ethnic studies courses have been highly effective in reducing students’ dropout rates and increasing their college matriculation well above the national average for Latino students.

Of course, what really scares Tom Horne, and others like him, is that the “downer” proof of bigotry and exploitation might make his Latino neighbors not sad, but empowered. They might insist that The Man respect their humanity. They might protest racism, go to college, make money, and become upwardly mobile. And in a couple decades when Latinos are the ethnic majority, Tom Horne and his capullos neighbors might not be able to cash in on his white privilege and Anglo name anymore! That version of the American Dream makes The Man wake up in a cold sweat…in his 5-bedroom house that was built, cleaned and maintained by the very people he despises. ¡Que ironía!

so educational content that supports minority students’ sense of self and identity, and increases thirst for knowledge as a pathway to staying in school and some even to tertiary education is a bad thing?!

First, I want to thank Becky for the lesson in Spanish swear words. However, I did discover the limits of Google translator.

This is yet another example of the fear and rage that characterizes right-wingers. Anything outside their experience, anything that’s not what they do or eat or wear or speak or believe, triggers this terror and results in hate-filled acts.

The reality is that this country is becoming brown, and those who are down now will be on top in the not-very-distant future. And they’ll remember how they were treated. So all of us white people had better hope that they will be kinder to us than we’ve been to them.

It really seems that the white folks in Arizona are terrified that the Latin@ population is going to identify more strongly with their Mexican neighbors than with the rest of white America, and in order to fight that possibility they are taking steps that are making it inevitable.

These racist loons in AZ have done a really good job of convincing me that I don’t want to vacation there. Even more bizarre is that they think by spewing more racist hate, I will have to vacation there just by the force of the very bile that keeps me from wanting to go there.

I just had a similar conversation about how feminism is depressing, and children should be shielded it from it so they can be happy. As if oppression only exists when you give it a name. Giving it a name gives you power over it, and that’s a good thing. It’s not just oppressed people who benefit from understanding these dynamics. It’s essential for privileged people to understand too, so that they can learn not to continue oppression, and to generally not be assholes. As time goes by, it’s the classes/lessons I had on feminist, ethnic, and disability studies that resonate the most and have made me a better citizen and neighbor.

@philosophyerin: Yeah, that reminded me of when I was in college and signed up for an African-American lit course and one of my fellow (whitey-white) students groused: “Why don’t they have a Caucasian-American literature course?” I gave her the side-eye and said, “What do you think you’ve been studying for the past 13 years?”

And as a pura gringa who’s spent a ton of time on Latin-American language and literature, I can testify that speaking Spanish and having some knowledge of Latino culture in no way reduces the white privilege accorded to me by our racist society. There’s no actual threat here, just race-baiting and xenophobia.

Isn’t there some kind of wingnut conspiracy theory about how Latin@s are going to rise up and take over the Southwest? Or re annex the border states back to Mexico? Because this legislation would make a hell of a lot more sense if folks are convinced that ethnic studies classes are a gateway to ethnic secession.

No lie when I first heard news reports about this I thought it was some sort of joke, the premise being hahaha They’re so racist and hysterical over there they’d even ban an ethnic studies class! ba-dum bum.

In my opinion the recent out cry over the proposed SB1070 anti illegal immigration bill is more political than anything. It’s not likely there would be a fuss if it were coming from our neighboring state of New Mexico which is governed by Democrat Bill Richardson.

It should be a known fact to everyone by now that our main stream media favors our new president so naturally they are going to jump on the bandwagon on this issue.

I have lived here a year and love it! I vacationed here many years before that. We love our LEGAL Hispanic neighbors. We even love the illegal ones IF they are not causing problems but that has not been the case in recent times. Arizonans understand this. The media has dropped the ball on this one.

Honestly Arizonans don’t seem to be outraged that the illegal Hispanics are taking jobs we might have…..which I don’t understand.

Anyways, I would never hesitate to vacation here…even if I didn’t have my papers in order. Don’t break the law and you will be OK.

@Legislation Forum Arizona: “Don’t break the law and you’ll be ok”? Maybe that’s true if you don’t “look” like someone who might be illegal. If you, however, happen to appear otherwise–and you only would appear otherwise if you have certain racialized/phenotypic characteristics–then you can legally be subjected to police harassment and be required to produce documentation of your status. This is not just being ok, *especially* if you happen not to have such documentation on you–and if you’re an American citizen who “looks illegal” it’s unlikely you would. (Do YOU carry your birth certificate to the grocery store?) The fact of the matter is that this bill allows certain people to be subjected to searches that would be illegal under the 14th amendment for everyone else, and does this based only on what they happen to look like to some member of law enforcement.

When I was in grade school all the schools were LEGALLY segregated by race. This was considered perfectly fine by the politicos & “Constitutional” as well. I remember very well when the schools in my town became ‘integrated’ [although of course neighborhoods and jobs remained largely segregated in "progressive" Minnesota]. When the schools integrated there was a great deal of fear-mongering from the rightwing. Cops were stationed in some high schools for example, all of a sudden, in schools with no history of violence. This is the way that apartheid maintains itself – and clearly in AZ the white Republicans and their stooges are feeling the pinch of demographic change away from “white bread.” Their response is to bring back segregationist and Nazi-style propaganda. Anyone who stands by and does not act to fight this vicious racism is AIDING-AND-ABETTING!

“Honestly Arizonans don’t seem to be outraged that the illegal Hispanics are taking jobs we might have…..which I don’t understand.”

So it’s been a lifelong dream of yours to labor for 12 hours under the scorching sun picking produce or somesuch? Yeah, right. I’m sure you and others like you are just chomping at the bit to reclaim the types of jobs that illegal immigrants often do in this country. Also, there are a lot of companies that profit from bringing illegals in to do hard labor jobs for pay and under conditions that no legal resident with the ability to invoke their rights would accept. And at the end of the day when the hatchet comes down, it’s always on the back of the worker, and not the company. Funny that.